Trump Questions Why the Civil War Happened, Says President Who Died 16 Years Prior Could Have Stopped It

Donald Trump, the man who thought being president “would be easier,” is now wondering why the Civil War couldn’t have been “worked out.”

During a new interview with the Washington Examiner‘s Salena Zito, President Trump questioned the necessity of America’s Civil War and suggested that former President Andrew Jackson, had he been alive at the time, could have prevented it.

“I mean had Andrew Jackson been a little bit later you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart,” said Trump, who compared himself to the nation’s seventh president in the interview. “He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, ‘There’s no reason for this.’ ”

Trump continued, “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it: why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, a vocal Trump critic, answered his question in a tweet on Monday:

1 word answer: Slavery. Longer: When Andrew Jackson died in 1845 (16 yrs before the Civil War began), he owned 150 men, women and children. https://t.co/Icg6puG2JZ

Jackson, who died in 1845, 16 years before the Civil War began, did in fact own approximately 150 slaves, according to the website for The Hermitage, his former plantation and occasional home in Tennessee.

In the Washington Examiner interview, which will air on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S.’s “Main Street Meets the Beltway” show later on Monday, Trump also discussed his visit to The Hermitage in March, where he laid a wreath at Jackson’s tomb and hailed him as the “people’s president.”

He also referred to the former president as a “swashbuckler.” “But when his wife died you know he visited her grave every day?” he said.

“It was amazing,” Trump added of his visit to Jackson’s home. “The people of Tennessee are amazing people. They love Andrew Jackson. They love Andrew Jackson in Tennessee.”